People Moves: HKEX, Trading Technologies, CME Group, and more

HKEX’s Aguzin hands over reins to Chan

Nicolas Aguzin, CEO at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (HKEX), has told the group’s board that he will not seek reappointment at the end of his current contract in May 2024.

The new CEO will be Bonnie Y Chan, who will serve for a term of three years. Chan has held several senior roles at HKEX, including head of IPO transactions for the listing division, head of listings, and most recently, co-COO. She has also been a partner at law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where she oversaw a portfolio of clients in Hong Kong and across Asia. 

HKEX will additionally appoint Wilfred Yiu as deputy CEO and Vanessa Lau a co-COO, beginning in May 2024.

Trading Technologies creates three new senior management roles

Trading platform provider Trading Technologies has announced three new posts on its leadership team as it works to burnish its appeal to the buy side.

Starting in January 2024, Justin Llewellyn-Jones will become COO, Christopher Heffernan will head up the company’s fixed-income business line, and Alun Green will oversee futures and options.

Llewellyn-Jones, who was most recently chief product officer at Broadridge, is tasked with driving the multi-asset offering in the firm’s market-facing business. He has also been global head of derivatives at both Ion and Fidessa.

Heffernan, who will focus on building TT’s fixed-income business, has been head of fixed-income sales at Flow Traders since 2019.

Green, who will work on expanding the company’s core futures and options franchise from London, joins from Fidelity Information Services, where he was managing director of derivatives utility following the firm’s acquisition of SunGard in 2015.

CME Group extends employment agreement for Duffy

CME Group has amended the contract of chairman and CEO Terry Duffy to extend his tenure until December 31, 2025.

Duffy has been in the futures industry for more than 40 years and has served in his current role since 2016. Before that, he was executive chairman and president of CME Group since 2012, executive chairman since 2006, and chairman since 2002.

DTCC taps Lio as head of enterprise services 

The Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. (DTCC) has appointed Gloria Lio as managing director and head of enterprise services. Lio will be responsible for leading strategy development for DTCC’s global business operations, client services, integration and business architecture, as well as facilitating DTCC’s digitization process. She will report to Frank La Salla, DTCC’s president, CEO, and director.

Lio joins DTCC from Bank of New York Mellon, where she was global head of custody and middle office operations. Before that, Lio spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs, where she held a number of global and regional operations-related leadership roles.

SimCorp creates new head of global commercial position

Danish investment management solutions provider SimCorp, which recently merged with risk platform Axioma in an acquisition by Deutsche Börse, has appointed Dean McIntyre as its first head of global commercial.

McIntyre will be based in SimCorp’s London office and report directly to Oliver Johnson, chief revenue officer. In his capacity overseeing all global commercial functions, he will be responsible for developing sales training and content creation. He will also support regional managing directors by providing local market insights and competitive intelligence, which will help local sales teams to negotiate strategic sales actions.

McIntyre joined SimCorp in January 2023 as director of strategy. Before that, he held senior positions with service vendor providers and investment management companies UBS Global Asset Management, FactSet, Bloomberg, Bisam, and Northern Trust. 

VersiFi hires two Hazeltree technologists to expand C-suite

Digital asset trading and lending firm VersiFi has appointed two new executives, both joining from treasury management solutions provider Hazeltree. Sol Zlotchenko will become chief product and technology officer, while Daniel Zayfman will become chief information security officer.

Zlotchenko is tasked with leading all product and technology development for VersiFi, and specializes in buy-side operations, financial engineering, and risk management. Zayfman will oversee all systems, networks, security and applications infrastructure at VersiFi, with a focus on protecting assets and minimizing cybersecurity threats. Before starting at Hazeltree, Zayfman was vice president of IT and operations for investment management solutions provider Paladyne Systems, which was acquired by Broadridge in 2011.

Options promotes McCann to CFO

Options Technology, a provider of capital markets services, has promoted Laura McCann to the position of CFO. McCann has held the post of vice president corporate controller since joining the company in 2016, where she contributed to the firm’s financial planning and analysis functions. Before her tenure at Options, McCann held roles at Nyse, Euronext, and Vela Trading.

In the CFO role, McCann will be responsible for consolidating the work of finance teams around the world and continuing to scale the business.

IQ-EQ names new CCO for the Americas 

Investor services group IQ-EQ has appointed David Giannone as its new chief commercial officer for the Americas region.

Giannone joined the firm’s US business development team as a senior managing director earlier in 2023, having previously spent nine years with RBC Investor and Treasury Services, where he held various roles including global head of business development. His career also includes senior roles with BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon and asset manager Alger.

As head of the regional commercial function, Giannone will be responsible for the group’s commercial ambitions across the US and Caribbean, with a focus on sales, internal commercial collaboration, and driving operational efficiencies within the team. 

RQD Clearing chooses Lanyon as CRO

RQD Clearing, a correspondent clearing and custody firm, has appointed Michael Lanyon as chief revenue officer. Lanyon was previously global head of sales at Apex Clearing.

Xceptor taps Nickerson as CFO

Data automation platform vendor Xceptor has selected Craig Nickerson to become its CFO, starting in January 2024.

Nickerson, who has previously held leadership roles at private equity-backed technology companies including RSA Security and Insightsoftware, will report to CEO Michiel Verhoeven. As well as helping implement the firm’s growth strategy, Nickerson will be responsible for investor relations.

Seymour promoted to COO of DiffusionData

DiffusionData, a provider of data streaming and messaging solutions, has promoted Neil Seymour from head of engineering to the role of COO. Before starting at DiffusionData, he worked at Vizolution as delivery director and was a professional services manager at Lexmark Enterprise Solutions.

In the new job, Seymour will focus on increasing DiffusionData’s presence in financial services, growing the company’s cloud footprint, and supporting its expansion into the Americas.

Capgemini picks Bhagat as CFO

Technology services and consulting firm Capgemini has announced the appointment of Nive Bhagat as group CFO from January 2024. She succeeds Carole Ferrand who has served as CFO since 2018 and plans to pursue other career opportunities.

Since 2019, Bhagat has been CEO of Capgemini’s cloud and infrastructure services, a business unit with over 30,000 team members.

Before joining Capgemini, Bhagat worked for several years at Infosys Technologies leading enterprise solutions in Europe. She has also worked in corporate finance with KPMG.